ABSTRACT
Benthamism had a lethal cutting-edge. Its deadlines can best be explained by the political and ideological context in which Jeremy Bentham sharpened his wits. Bentham’s fundamental postulate was that those actions, private and public, moral and political, which produce the greatest happiness of the greatest number are good actions. Benthamism’s emphasis on the role of government as a happiness-producing agency has caused some of its critics to begin to wonder how deep Benthamism’s liberalism goes. Liberals have always found the pain-removing function of Benthamite government more to their taste than the positive side of happiness-creation, for the very simple reason that it is easier to agree about what causes pain than it is to agree about what really produces pleasure. It may be that what has come to be called neo-liberalism has forsaken any notion of liberty as being in any sense related to that liberty of human will and cognition which liberalism has hitherto always clutched to its heart.
